With much fanfare and as much scrutiny, Accor has finally launched in Los Angeles the repositioning of the classic, mid-century modern Century Plaza Hotel as the Fairmont Century Plaza. The US$2.5 billion mixed-use development project led by design firm Yabu Pushelberg on 6.14 acres has the opportunity to reposition the brand again, and add some needed cachet, according to Regional Vice President, Southern California and General Manager Philip Barnes.
The 400-room hotel with 63 private residences will sometime during the upcoming spring be joined by the Tower Residences at Century Plaza, two 44-story glass towers with 268 privately owned estate residences designed by Pei Cobb Freed. Barnes says the hotel has an amazing signature restaurant in Lumière, a seasonal, modern American Brasserie, as well as a spectacular 14,000 square-foot spa and a rooftop pool that eventually will be opened to exclusive memberships.
Nearly 24,000 square feet of private event space will include one of the largest ballrooms in Los Angeles with seating for over 1,500, and bookings are off and running, according to Barnes, including the high-profile Critic’s Choice Awards in January. The hotel also has booked a big piece of business surrounding the upcoming Super Bowl, as well as a number of other events relating to the movie and music industries. “People are lining up… The city hasn’t had anything of this caliber for years. So, people are very excited,” Barnes told HOTELS. “It’s happening, and it’s going to happen quickly.”
Barnes, who joined the hotel in September 2020 after running the Fairmont-managed Savoy in London since 2016, estimates rate will land north of US$750 and occupancy should settle in around 75% to 77%.
What will drive the business is, of course, the history of the reimagined landmark, but also its location, Barnes said, adding that Century City is one of the hottest neighborhoods in Los Angeles and already home to some of the most expensive residential towers, as well as Fortune 500 companies like Bloomberg and Netflix. This is not to mention that high-profile talent agency Creative Artists Agency (CAA) is directly across the street and Barnes has already struck a deal with CAA to send emerging talent to the hotel to play in the lobby.
“Century City is an emerging destination within the city,” Barnes said. “It’s about understanding the marketplace and where the opportunities lie, and some of it ties back beautifully to the history of the hotel and all the events that have happened here (first opened in 1966, it has hosted the world’s biggest stars, including the Beatles, and welcomed presidents and heads of states). That has cemented this hotel in the hearts and minds of the local community… That to me drove the positioning… This hotel has this incredible connection to the city in ways that other hotels don’t, to be blunt. And, so, everything we’re doing is building off that and building off the history of the hotel.”
GM’s favorites
Needless to say, COVID created some delays for the brand-new building from within the existing, curved exterior with landmark status, but Barnes said being able to put in a new infrastructure has actually made the design process easier than some major renovations. His biggest challenge has been keeping a team engaged and he shipped many of them out early in 2021 to other North American Fairmonts to keep them motivated. “The bricks and the mortar can be stunning, but unless you have the right people in it, they won’t bring it to life,” he added.
When asked about his favorite spaces in the hotel he pointed to Lumière, which is being managed by former 11 Madison Park GM Paul Quinn. The space created by EDG Design is filled with fixtures, furnishings and fixtures from France and Barnes said, “It has a wonderful feel to it, a mix of brand-new furnishings and antique products like the bar top and light above that came from France.”
Barnes called the spa dramatic and believes it is going to reset the stage in Los Angeles for wellness. “And I don’t think anybody’s expecting that. So, I think that’s going to be the biggest surprise,” he said.
Perhaps one of the more novel engineering feats at the Fairmont Century Plaza is the lobby windows, which can disappear into the floor through a hydraulic system. “When I saw those windows in action, I could not believe they hadn’t been value engineered out,” Barnes quipped. “But it is spectacular with four panels at the front of the lobby and four at the back of the lobby that literally dropped right into the floor… They will be open for a large percentage of the year, which will give us the only open-air lobby in Los Angeles.”
The rest of what Barnes needs to do is listen to his guests, as well as provide an element of relaxation and fun, he added. “It used to be that luxury was defined by the quality of the linens, the glassware and the China,” he said. “And those things are all still important, but they’re now a given. It’s the whole experience that we create for people. And I think that where our opportunity here is to take that incredible history of major events that went on here and bring it to life again.”
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warren wilkie
October 11, 2021 at 7:58 pmworked at Century Plaza as management trainee in 1970, known as ” the worlds mst beautifull hotel ” looks like it still is.